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Adanis' Australian coalmining project to "release" 121 million tonnes of greenhouse gases: Greenpleace

By Our Representative
Top international environmental NGO Greenpeace has raised the alarm that if India's powerful Adani Group is allowed to go ahead with its Carmichael coal-mining project worth $21.7 billion in Australia, on full production, a whopping 121 million tonnes of greenhouse gas would be released into the atmosphere each year.To be set up on 28,000 hectares (ha) land, the compay proposes to ship 60 million tonnes of coal directly through the heart of the Great Barrier Reef, which Greenpeace has says is Australian province Queensland’s "most precious environmental asset."
“It doesn’t matter if the coal is burnt in India, in Korea or Australia. Climate change is a global problem and exporting the coal makes it our problem when the future of the Great Barrier Reef is at stake,” said Shani Tager, Greenpeace Australia Pacific reef campaigner.
The Greenpeace statement, carried by news portal southasiatimes.com.au, comes close on the heels of Queensland Parliament agreeing to provide "all state government approvals for Adani Mining’s $21.7 billion Carmichael Coal project, located north-west of Clermont", reports from Australia said.
The motion to support the project, ironically, was supported by both Government and Opposition speakers, who told Queensland Parliament that the project would "provide thousands of jobs and rapid economic development for the region." What makes the Adani project particularly high profile is the business group's strong support comes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The government strongly supports the sustainable development of the Galilee Basin for the jobs and economic development it could provide for regional Queensland,” Mines Minister Anthony Lynham claimed.
Last month, the State’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection granted Adani a formal environmental authority (EA) for project, though with approximately 140 conditions, including 9 conditions relating to the black throated finch as required by the Land Court, the report said.
The Adanis, however, have still not crossed the last hurdle of gaining a mining license from the state before it begins project development. Dr Lynham told Parliament that the license could be "approved when compensation agreements were reached."
Calling the Queensland Parliament’s "support" for the Carmichael coal project as "utterly irresponsible" and "grossly hypocritical", Greenpeace said, “Instead of offering words of support for the coal industry under the banner of creating potential jobs, the Queensland government needs to protect the Great Barrier Reef, which provides jobs for more than 69,000 people already."
“Allowing any new coal mines will worsen the threat to the reef, and is incredibly hypocritical, given the Queensland government’s continued promises to UNESCO that it will protect this World Heritage icon. Instead of wasting their time with empty statements of support for the coal industry, the Queensland government should be working to transition to clean energy and sustainable jobs”, it said.
“Jobs associated with Carmichael have been grossly overstated, as the Land Court heard. There are no sustainable jobs in coal The Queensland Government seems to have forgotten that coal creates carbon emissions. If the Carmichael mine, the biggest proposed coal mine in Australia, gets built, the coal will be burnt overseas, driving climate change, warming our oceans and contributing to coral bleaching", it added.